Is this fraud or just pure incompetence? (Bridgend County Borough Council)

Member Name: smartyarse

Product:	Bridgend County Borough Council
Date:	17/04/01 (292 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A detailed tourism section

Disadvantages: More like a database than a website, portrays an image of the council that is not true to life.

I know I am making a sweeping statement here but I really believe something underhanded is going on at Bridgend Borough Council. But before I go any further on this point, I just want yo make sure that you realise I am not a natural complainer, but a person can only be pushed so far.

Quality Of Services Compared With Representation Of Services On Website.
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There are some photos of local venues at the top of the homepage, it is not a very attractive site, but I am not complaining; as I am wandering these pages all I am wanting is basic information. So let's see, what am I expecting to find on this site?... School league tables, where our tax money goes, what leisure services Bridgend has to name but a few. So I will now investigate a bit further.....................

Crime and Policing
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I felt this report was appropriate for me to write as I have had so much personal heartache through them. I am 18 years old, I lost my father when I was 12 (although it still feels like yesterday). As you can imagine I will never forget that awful experience where I had to watch him suffer daily through cancer. Anyone who's suffered the loss of a parent will now understand the anguish and pain I was caused by the council when I finish this story.

After my father died, we did not have much money and the only way we could survive was by my mother (suffering from M.E) going out to work. Scrimping and saving every week, we finally got the money together to buy a gravestone. After much discussion we decided to buy a gravestone with his photo set in on porcelain. He was such a special person we decided this would be perfect as a memorial to him.

Here comes my problem with the council; 6 months ago there was a mass vandalism of the graves on the graveyard. My fathers photo had been prised out and smashed, the flowerpots had been smashed and the gravestone was covered i
n scratches.

I can't even begin to describe how I felt about this but I can no longer bear to go and visit my fathers grave and we haven't got the money to repair it. After this problem there is STILL no extra surveillance or security put there by the council, all the council want is for people to pay £80 insurance a year.

Looking on the website I saw no information on crime and policing, I would have liked to have seen a section about this on the website to see what improvements they intend making on reducing crime in the area.

Housing
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Ok, here's where I'll begin, trawling through the pages I come across Bridgend Borough Council's statement which says ‘The Council seeks to deliver the highest quality services by the most EFFECTIVE, ECONOMIC and EFFICIENT means available and strives for continuous improvement within the principles of the ‘Best Value'. Two of the principles in the ‘Best Value' scheme is ‘develop a co-ordinated approach in the delivery of all services to visually impaired people' and ‘to improve aspects of services to older people.'

OK, if I was reading their mission statement and I didn't live in the area I would be fooled. A council that really takes care of the communities people in need. But is this a true representation? In a word NO!

Here's why; my grandmother comes under both principles above of the ‘Best Value' scheme. But the amount of anxiety they have caused her over her housing benefit has been unbelievable. On applying for housing benefit my elderly blind grandmother saw no cause for concern, my mother had handed in all appropriate documentation (personally handed in to staff at Bridgend Council in fact!), and so there was no need to worry, was there? Wrong, 3 weeks later my grandmother was still receiving warning letters to the effect that she was to pay full rent each week. When contact
ed the Council's reply was ‘not to take any notice, as the computers had gone down.' ‘Don't worry about it' they said. Two days later another warning was received by my grandmother. So yet another call was needed to the Council, which managed to calm my grandmother down.

By now when she received yet another letter telling her she was in debt it was getting beyond the joke. More telephone calls, another visit to the council offices with all the same documentation, more reassurances but disappointingly no change, there are still letters being sent claiming rent arrears.

My grandmother is now in her late seventies with blood pressure soaring, I wonder is there a human in that council office who is responsible for all this anxiety and incompetence year after year.

Helplines
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So presented with this problem, I take a look at this dull and boring website. Hmmm, perhaps if I clicked on helplines, there would be an end to the above problem I thought. OK, no problems there, there are clearly sectioned helplines to ring. My query came under housing benefit and under another subsection ‘streets H-O.' Thinking this *might* be where they have gone wrong before, I ring up this specific number. Not really expecting to speak to someone who would care, I waited for the phone to be answered. I told her our plight and like I was a lost sheep , she sent me to a number of departments, being told ‘this is not my department,' before I was finally told to bring in the documentation AGAIN!

So I have come to the conclusion that there is either some sort of fraud going on or pure lack of communication and an inability to do their job. This is the first myth I found on the website, portraying a picture of ‘specific offices for specific problems.' I think I could have found more help in an infants yard!

Councillors, Cabinets & Committees
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This was the easiest thing to find on this website.. All the fame and glory was bestowed on theses councillors on the website, there was a photo of them, their job structure and their job role. I admit this is useful information but I feel this website is just a database of contacts rather than providing any actual information. I was also able to locate my local trading standards office.

Tax Money
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The only mention of tax money is the councils budget which is £131 million, there is no mention about where the tax money goes. I can only wonder; there seem to be unnecessary road ‘improvements' going on at the moment, lots of traffic lights and mini roundabouts popping up, which in the places they have put them has caused more problems. In my opinion, what they are doing is trying to use up the rest of their disposable income before the new financial year. By spending it on roadworks it looks to people like the council are bringing improvements to the county.

Take a closer look and you will see they are not making true improvements to the county or to its people. Here's an example of bad planning, terrible in-house communications and even worse customer service. My mother and step-father applied for a council grant for repair of a leaking roof. Eventually getting permission it went ahead and the job was carried out very efficiently. This time we handed in the in the bill to the council offices (not taking any chances this time!). All seemed well. Then the builder phoned us up very irritated at not being paid, my parents made another visit to the council and was reassured that cheque would go in as all necessary paperwork had been handed into council by hand.

Four weeks later, although builders bill had gone in, a council officer called claiming they couldn't pay out until they receive the bill. The bill was quickly printed out for the council again, but the council officer took a loo
k at the bill which had my parents note of satisfaction of work being carried out, and he said repeatedly and robotic-like ‘we need the final bill.' My parents then got in contact with the builder who got a copy of the same bill, typed ‘final invoice' on the top and we're hoping that it will be acceptable THIS time!

The builder said he had had this problem before , they're stalling for time until the start of the new financial year comes when their new money comes in. So my point is it is all very well spending money on so-called road improvements but they are not attending to real problems.

Libraries
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In this section a list of libraries comes up along with their facilities such as computers, lends of audio tapes and family and local history research. While I was wandering this website I was intrigued when I saw ‘research your local and family history'. This feature was deceiving as I thought they were going to give more information for researching ie search engines etc but it just directs you towards using Bridgend Reference Library where they have newspaper readers etc.

Leisure Facilities
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This section of the site is no where near comprehensive. The council claims that Bridgend has a wide and diverse range of sport and recreation facilities which is not really true. There are 6 swimming pools and 4 main leisure centres. Other sport and recreation facilities in the county have had to be supplemented by voluntary sports clubs such as an athletics track at Newbridge Fields.

What's On
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This was a search engine where you could look for local events on. The search engine allowed you to search under different categories such as ‘children's entertainment' and what dates you wanted the entertainment between. I took a look and this search engine was not very comprehensive because I felt they hadn't included all
events in the area. Would have been a useful feature if they updated it more often.

Schools Information
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I was disappointed at this feature as I was expecting to see how my old school rated in the league table. No mention of league tables or school websites could be found , so I was just left wondering.

Business
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The only positive thing I can say about Bridgend Council is they are always actively looking for more business to the area. Recent developments have been an introduction of a designer clothes village and an Odean Cinema. At the moment a new hotel is being built and there as also been a recent decision to double the size of the Bridgend Science Park.

The business section covers new developments in the area and routes to take if you have a project and you want to get funded.

Council Services
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This is a big letdown as far as I am concerned. If you click on council services, another tree of links pops up including ‘education and leisure,' ‘corporate services,' ‘environmental and planning' and ‘chief executive.' There is very little information on the local council, once again I had to be contented with a list of addresses and telephone numbers rather than information.

Tourism
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Bridgend is an historic town which celebrates a heritage reaching back to Pre-Roman times, there are some particularly interesting castles in the area.

Quite startled at the bright colours of this section, I took a look at the subsections; ‘How to find us,' ‘Places to Visit,' ‘Activities and Sport,' ‘Arts and Entertainment,' ‘Places to Stay,' ‘Tourist Info' and ‘Order a Brochure.'

I must admit that I was quite impressed with this section. I looked at all the links; ‘How to Find us' section covered a map of the county and
forms of transport. ‘Places to Visit' had quite a few quality photos. Also I thought the tide times and weather forecast were particularly useful for tourists looking to visit the coastal area of Porthcawl. Nice touch!

My Feelings
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I wrote this poem to try and encapsulate and convey my feelings:

Bridgend is a town of historic sites,
Castles and legends which concerned young knights.
The website is more myth than Bridgend will ever be,
This is plain for all residents to see.
Promised improvements will never come true,
We'll wait for these until we're blue.
All we're asking for is a more personal touch,
Are we really asking for all that much?

Overall Opinion
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The only true reflection from this site is that the site uses cold blue icy colours, which in my opinion, is a metaphor for the characters working at Bridgend County Borough Council!

Summary: